DevOps for corporate ?

Implementing a DevOps strategy with your army of one team is most of the the time easy. It's just dependent on the sweat on your brow. A matter of experimentation, glue the pieces together push it out and you are pretty much good to go.

Put in a corporate environment into the mix and add in about a few hundred more people into the mix and you get a pretty interesting mix. Strangely this time around I don't find the exercise exhausting or that much frustrating. I have been struggling and examining my own feelings and comparing to find the difference in the situation this and why don't I feel so restless or frustrated. I think it's a function of growing up and the promise I see in the people that I am helping now. The difference I see with the people now is that they want to change and they feel a need to do so. No question about that.

However add in that dash of fear of the unknown of the new methods and practices and you get a a jumble of wishful thinking and half implemented ideas and visions. Main thing is try not to judge. That is very important. The book "Factfulness" says it best. Try to believe that people are not stupid. Practices or things are a certain way for a reason. Sticking with the belief that people or practices in an organisation is a certain way because people are stupid or stubborn just makes the task or changing or overhauling something in that same organisation so much insurmountable and frustrating for me.

Believing that people inherently want to do the right thing given the chance puts you on a mode of thinking or view that have a much higher chance for success. Then the only thing left are practices or governance that were erected to protect a collective belief or state not because people want to make other people's life harder but usually because they did not know better and were of the belief that the governance or checks will help their current situation.

Now I see a lot of opportunities for improvement and change that can be unlocked via many levels governance unlocked by convincing committees and gatekeepers. I am hopeful and see many opportunities to help and make things better enabling the organisation to move faster than it had before in the past.

Currently reading ...

A new year and new challenges

It's a new year already. I have this uncharacteristically made some promises to myself. I have set a goal this year to read more, 20 books more to be exact. The promise was solemnised in the goodreads app. So far I am 8 books in and off to a good start, hopefully I keep it up midway and finish strong come December of 2019.

The new year brought about too challenges in looking at some of the things I do daily from a different perspective. It was about at that time too, that I came across this great book called Grit written by Angela Duckworth. Some contents of that book seems to be speaking to me directly and forced me to look back at my own history in some areas with the harsh light of truth.  Sometimes or most often than not stuck in the throes of your own self righteousness of what things you feel that you have been wronged or those who have wronged you, your blinders does not allow you to see the whole truth, or I guess self preservation distorts the truth for you so that you can still get out of bed each day and champion another day of tilting at your windmills.

Some chapters of this book is like a balm or the soothing syrup to the hoarse voice that cries out in my head that I should be constantly jumping around and looking for the next best thing. The voices have died down to a degree until you can say I am only "semi looking" for a good thing now, as in only if something really good comes along I will try out for it. Thinking ahead I would rather leave behind regrets for things I have really gave a good shot to that I failed rather than all half tries which have still lingering hopes in there that I could have triumphed or prevailed if I had stuck to it longer of tried that last great idea I had before I got struck down by the powers that be. Talking about the "powers that be" I think too that I might have been hiding too long behind being mistreated in my jobs or stuck in a job where I was helpless to make a change. I bailed just before things got bad or more accurately before my ideas had time to get bad.

I am going to steer and commandeer this one until I get some results be good or bad to see where it takes me this time. I don't want to leave a legacy of half tried ideas behind. For those of you that want to give this great book a try, you can find the book here, full disclosure it's an affiliate link:

Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance

Will tell you more about this book in my upcoming posts.